So basically, what you're saying is that if one of the other 15 Commonwealth realms had refused to accept the change concerning gender and succession, we would've had to either accept the old status quo despite our principles of sexual equality as stated in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms or simply withdraw from the system.
What I am saying is that Canadians should be proud that we have been part of a much-needed modernisation of the institution of the Canadian monarchy. Had one of the fifteen other realms not assented to the proposed revisions, then I would argue that the balance of the realms should have proceeded anyway with changes to the order of succession -- and the "dissenting" realms could have thereby been left to their own devices.
I should note, too, that all provisions of the Canadian constitution are co-independent. The
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms cannot render
other parts of our constitutional framework invalid or unenforceable, and this includes the structure of the Canadian monarchy and the order of succession. (This will likely also hold to be true with the upcoming case respecting the oath of allegiance to the Crown.)
Seems to me that accepting the status quo in that situation would be refusing to stand up to what we believe in as a nation. We've been lazily accepting monarchy as our system despite its clash between some of its core principles and our core values and that to me is a lack of integrity and maturity as a nation.
That's a theoretical situation. The fact is that Canada has already consented to changes to the order of succession (as considered and passed by both the Senate and the House of Commons), and that we are now prepared to move forward with a modernised structure for our constitutional monarchy. The shared Crown is a
voluntary union and relationship between sixteen countries.
I don't think constitutional monarchy is a "lazy" system at all. Rather, it's the understanding that we have the best system of government in the world with respect to day-to-day efficiencies, flexibility in the formation of politically-supported governments, and ensuring the primacy of democratic direction in decision-making.
Don't you think a country ought to stand up to their value system? You've been one of the staunchest supporter of monarchy in this forum since I've discovered it. How did you deal with the fact that the system was sexist at its core? How do you deal with the fact that it still discriminates on religion when our Charter clearly praises the wrongness of such a concept?
Considerable advances have been made to address these concerns -- many of them with the
Succession to the Throne Act, 2013 of the Parliament of Canada. I think that Canadians should be proud of the steps that we have taken, as a group of countries, to ensure the modernisation of an institution that has served our countries well, and that will continue to do so with one of the best structures of government in the world.